Resourceful Cities
Berlin (Germany), 29‐31 August 2013
Artistic intervention in public sphere,
conflict and urban informality:
an international comparative approach to informal
dynamics in cultural districts
Pedro Costa * Ricardo Lopes **
Paper presented at the International RC21 Conference 2013
Session 9: Urban (in)formality: tensions, conflicts and breakups in the struggle to
belong
(*) Department of Political Economy / DINAMIA’CET-IUL
ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon
Av. Forças Armadas, 1649-026, Lisboa, Portugal
[email protected]
(**) DINAMIA’CET-IUL
ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon
Av. Forças Armadas, 1649-026, Lisboa, Portugal
[email protected]
© the author(s)
Not to be quoted without permission
Abstract:
Artistic intervention in cultural districts can be an outstanding viewpoint to understand
the multiple layers of uses and segregations that bring vitality in everyday life to the
complex organisms that cities are. Urban informality contexts can be fundamental for
the expression of this diversity and to liminality strategies, particularly interesting in
the case of artistic intervention, as artistic creativity is often about transgression,
differentiation, and, therefore, conflict.
Small initiatives that develop in an informal and ephemeral way by artists who choose
the city as stage for their work, exploring boundaries between public and private
spaces, are particular interesting, evidencing the usual use conflicts verified on
creative milieus but being also important to keep these places as vernacular as
possible and to avoid gentrification processes.
In this perspective, this paper aims to discuss this relation between urban design,
public space appropriation and the informal artistic dynamics verified on these
creative milieus, from an international comparative perspective. Drawing on a
photographical approach to urban morphology, everyday life and symbolic public
space appropriation on those areas, five cultural quarters are studied: Bairro Alto /
Cais do Sodré area (Lisbon); Gracia (Barcelona); Vila Madalena (São Paulo);
Kreuzberg SO36 (Berlin) and Brick Lane (London).
Keywords: Creative milieus; Conflict; Informality; Cultural quarters; Public spaces;
Informal artistic intervention; Photography
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1. Introduction
Cultural quarters have been widely studied in recent years as they embody broader
structural transformations associated with urban change, but also as they are
privileged arenas for tension and conflict, manifested both in spatial terms and in
people’s lived experiences. The wide variety of gentrified residential city enclaves,
ghettos, gay villages, ethnic quarters, red light districts and creative quarters can be
seen as a commonplace feature of contemporary urban landscape, which often
brings vitality and vibrancy for many ancient or abandoned areas of cities, but also as
an arena for frequent conflicts between residents and users, gentrifiers and traditional
residents, new activities and traditional activities, night users and day users, and so
on (Costa, 2008; Costa et al, 2010). Public space is often the privileged sphere for
these tensions and conflicts, with the expression of multiple power relations at the
levels of the physical space, the experiences it provides and the symbolic field. In
parallel, these are also frequently liminal spaces, marked by transgression and social
and individual expression of the self.
Artistic intervention is in this context a particularly interesting way of looking at these
neighbourhoods and to understand the multiple layers of uses and segregations that
bring vitality in everyday life to these parts of the complex organisms that cities are.
Urban informality contexts can be fundamental for the expression of this diversity and
to liminality strategies, particularly interesting in the case of artistic intervention, as
artistic creativity is often about transgression, differentiation, and, therefore, conflict.
In contemporary cultural and social panorama, this reflection leads us to be
interested in small initiatives that develop in an informal and ephemeral way by artists
who choose the city as stage for their work. Artists whose interventions explore the
boundaries between public and private spaces, suggesting a public sphere actuation;
this micro scale of actuation brings the usual use conflicts verified on creative milieus
but can also be important to keep these places as vernacular as possible and to
avoid gentrification processes.
In this perspective, this paper aims to discuss this relation between urban design,
public space appropriation and the informal artistic dynamics verified on these
creative milieus, from an international comparative perspective. Based on a
photographical approach (centered on the recollection and critical interpretation of
visual information) to urban morphology, everyday life and symbolic public space
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appropriation on those areas, five cultural quarters are studied: Bairro Alto / Cais do
Sodré area (Lisbon); La Gracia (Barcelona); Vila Madalena (São Paulo); Kreuzberg
SO36 (Berlin) and Brick Lane (London).
They represent very diverse situations regarding their historical, cultural and
economic backgrounds as well as in what concerns to the spatial conditions that
support the vitality and sustainability of a “creative milieu”. The relation between the
use conflicts verified in these areas, the artist interventions that occur in their public
spheres, and the sustainability of these areas as “vital” and “creative” centers is
discussed in a comparative perspective. Drawing on literature review and on the
recollection and critical interpretation of visual information on these areas, we aim to
provide better understanding on the relation between artistic intervention in public
sphere, conflict and urban informality, in order to assist a new planning agenda for
dealing with urban creative dynamics and cultural quarters.
After this introduction, next section will offer the main framework for the analysis
pursued, relating the creative milieus development with conflict and with their
morphological, symbolic and informality conditions. In section 3, a brief overview of
main relevant issues on artistic Intervention in the public sphere is made, which is
complemented, on section 4, by a set of exemplifications of their impact through a set
of urban interventions developed by the authors. Section 5 offers the comparative
approach on the 5 case studies, providing a short description of their main features
and their urban insertion, and a photographic outlook on the relation between conflict,
public sphere appropriation and potential for artistic intervention in each of the cases.
Finally, a concluding note provides some perspectives towards policy orientations for
dealing with urban creative dynamics and cultural quarters.
2. Cultural quarters and the “creative milieu”: conflict and informal dynamics
as drivers for artistic vitality
In recent years multiple territories have stood out as ‘creative milieus’ as they offer a
specific atmosphere or certain conditions required to embed and develop sustainable
creative processes in cultural activities (see Camagni et al. 2004; Cooke and
Lazzeretti 2007; Costa 2007; Costa et al, 2011; or in a wider perspective, O’Connor
and Wynne 1996; Scott 2000). This label usually congregates very diverse situations,
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which are generally based on specific governance mechanisms that play a key part in
most of those success cases. Our study in this paper refers to a specific kind of these
“creative milieus”, the “cultural districts” or “cultural quarters” (cf. Costa et al, 2008).
These cultural quarters, in their diversity, have been broadly studied as they embody
wider structural transformations associated with urban change (Bell and Jayne, 2004;
Cooke and Lazzeretti, 2008; Porter and Shaw, 2009). It is not our aim to describe or
discuss here their huge diversity, concerning both their origins and their main
characteristics (more central or peripheral, more or less gentrified, more inclusive or
segmented, more diverse or coherent, etc. – see Bell and Jayne, 2004 on this). In
effect, the diversity and complexity of these territorial systems is often recognized as
the ground to their resilience, and to the capacity to develop specific governance
mechanisms and symbolic attributes which enable their long term vitality.
Acknowledging the importance of “classic” factors (such as dimension, density and
diversity of social practices – many times translated in expressions such as
agglomeration, scale, interaction, networking, tolerance or other) to this, but also the
crucial role of the symbolic sphere potentiated in cultural activities (cf. Costa et al,
2011), our aim in this paper is just to discuss how the characteristics and the informal
dynamics verified in these places contribute to their vitality, through artistic
intervention, relating those to their specific morphological and spatial conditions.
In effect, the diversity and density of activities and the urban design and
morphological conditions clearly influence these areas’ creative dynamics – as
suggested by Hospers (2003), Gehl (2004) or Balula (2010), and verified by Costa e
Lopes (2012) in some of these quarters. Urban material conditions, as the way they
are appropriated and perceived by people, are naturally a key factor in the vitality and
in the long term conditions for the sustainability of these spaces. Besides, the
common diversity of rhythms and daily habits of its users, make us aware of their
multiple layers of uses and symbolic codification.
As Costa and Lopes refer, in these spaces the symbolical sphere plays an important
role and is fundamental to understand both their vitality and their fragmentation
(Costa and Lopes, 2012), particularly if they are central nodes in the conviviality and
sociability mechanisms that are vital for reputation building and gatekeeping
mechanisms on cultural activities (Costa, 2012). People who come to these spaces
identify and many times deliberately look for a created image (of the place, of
themselves, of their groups, of what they want to be), that is, for the symbolic
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meaning of that place. These are particular places for representation, for the
assumption of specific lifestyles and ways of life (cf O’Connor and Wynne, 1996) and
therefore, the concept of urban theatricality is sharp in these territories.
Consequently, along with liminality processes, we can watch a natural segregation of
practices and people in the different spaces (or even in the same places, each with
several codified layers of representations, differently de-codified by their different
audiences and users). Often, this process is based on auto-segregation, but
sometimes naturally it involves also conflict between the diverse potential users and
power relations that take place within that system or in the framework of its external
regulation (Costa and Lopes, 2012).
In effect, the different interests and motivations of the diverse agents in these
territorial systems are naturally often contradictory. The main use conflicts among
them are one of the critical aspects for the development and long term consistency of
these creative milieus. As expressed before (e.g. Costa, 2008, Costa and Lopes,
2012), the conflicts of uses verified in each of these particular spaces (e.g., between
users and residents, night users and day users, traditional residents and newcomers,
traditional cultural and new activities), are a unceasing dimension of its life (and even
one essential dimension to certain kinds of creative activity, by its intrinsic liminal and
alternative nature). This conflict manifests in different arenas (real estate market,
public space appropriation, symbolic sphere, …) and is perceived diversely by the
users and the multiple art world’s agents involved (e.g. the case of graffiti or urban
intervention). These conflicts are felt particularly in two fields. On one hand, through
gentrification, and the different power relations in appropriation of public and private
space; on the other hand in numerous conflicts between the diverse individual or
group interests, expressed in externalities (such as congestion of parking or traffic
infrastructures, noise, urban cleanliness issues, etc.). However, despite all their
problems and consequences, some of these conflicts may have an important role in
the sustainability of these systems as creative areas, as they can inhibit or postpone
gentrification processes (e.g. most of these externalities are key factors in avoiding
conventional gentrification processes in a case like Bairro Alto area, Lisbon, having a
key role in the selective – more creative and specific lifestyles oriented –
gentrification process verified – Costa and Lopes, 2012, Costa 2013a).
This latent conflict nature in these areas can be creatively explored, being artistic
activities themselves intrinsically the expression of innumerous conflicts, and that is
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naturally enhanced by the informality and the potential for public sphere appropriation
verified in these districts, where the possibility for interventions and artistic
appropriations in the public sphere is more flexible. The informality and liminality that
mark these territories is vital for its sustainability as part of their daily dynamics and
contributing to a strong local identity (Costa and Lopes, 2012). In effect, on a scenery
in which the boundaries between public and private sphere constantly blur, and
where the ephemeral gains its space, new creative possibilities emerge. Mostly, in a
more open, tolerant and un-institutionalized framework, new fields for developing and
explore new sorts of creative processes and informal-based dynamics materialize. So
we assist all over the world to all sort of processes of this nature, though with diverse
patterns: artistic appropriation of public sphere (e.g. graffiti and street art, but also the
aperture of private space to public and contamination strategies, through performing
or visual arts, for instance), informal appropriation by users (including sociability and
reputation building mechanisms and gatekeeping processes), performativity in public
space, many times associated to liminality processes or to expression of identities or
of the self (e.g, multicultural or gender expression). After all, this is particularly
remarkable also because informal and ephemeral appropriation of public spaces in
the city can have enough interest in a historical era that embraces time delays
caused by economic interests (such as property speculation) or bureaucratic
processes (such as licensing procedures) that can often lead to cities’ death. These
informality-based behaviors are certainly a way to maintain (even if temporarily or
ephemerally in some cases) the creative vitality and the liveliness of those spaces.
The “creative milieu” concept, in line with the GREMI approach (Camagni et al,
2004), helps us as a theoretical backbone for analysing this variety of situations.
Each one can be seen as a combination of three intertwined layers: a locally
embedded production-consumption system, rooted in the territorial characteristics; a
governance system, mixing the formal and informal endogenous and exogenousbased regulatory mechanisms in a specific way; and a symbolic system, involving
both the external image(s) and the self-representations of the area. This triple
perspective is fundamental to understand the specific conditions and ambiances that
seem to be determinant to embed sustainable creative processes in these areas, as
well as to relate them to urban socioeconomic and morphological dimensions.
Having this broad framework in mind, our specific aim in this text is to understand
how informal dynamics can be seen as drivers for artistic vitality, in a diversity of
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“creative quarters” situations. Re-thinking city through micro-scale systems of action,
instead of just large projects and flagship interventions is essential for planning the
city attending to urban creativity and to real creative dynamics. Understanding
everyday life and the role of more informal and ephemeral initiatives for cities’
planning is fundamental, requiring (re)focusing our attention to this specific issue and
the use of new methodologies.
3. Artistic intervention in the public sphere: from the sacred art fortresses to
the work with urban matter
The cities are changing every day, people are connected in a network that is driven
by different rhythms and habits; It generates different layers of codifications and
uses, not always pacific between all the users. However, it is this diversity and the
critical masses associated (dimension, density and heterogeneity arguments) that
make the cities being so appellative organisms to a constant change of experiences,
ideas, opinions and knowledge. The spaces of the public sphere are the stages
where people meet each other and where the artistic interventions have been
developed in the different layers of the city.
The places of the public sphere are composed by private and public spaces. In this
paper, and following the ideas developed in Costa and Lopes (2012), we propose to
look for the public sphere as a “space” that could be “appropriated”, breaking the
“traditional” boundaries between both concepts, in an era that many of the
happenings that used to be developed in public spaces are being developed in
private ones. Throughout the years cities are being transformed, it is a natural
process. More than to reference a concrete physical space, it is to assume that any
space can become a local belonging to the public sphere, whether it is the room of
our house or the old neighborhood grocery store, according to the use that is
developed in it for a period of time. A good project to illustrate this situation was
developed in Berlin, in summer of 1992, entitled Berlin 37 Räume (Berlim 37 Rooms).
The exhibition took place during a week in the quarter of Mitte, inviting 31 curators,
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international artists - as the musician John Cage1 - and local artists, to develop sitespecific interventions in 37 rooms of unoccupied buildings in the city. The exhibition
extrapolated the “traditional” concept of art gallery, transforming the inside areas of
the houses, traditionally private spaces, into spaces belonging to the public sphere
for everyone who wanted to visit the exhibition. In some of the rooms where the
project was developed and led by the curator Klaus Biesenbach2 remain today art
galleries. In this way, they have entered again in the dynamics of Berlin and
contributed to the revitalization of the buildings, as well as of the adjacent areas of
the city.
In recent years, increasingly cities all over the world have welcomed ephemeral
artistic initiatives that choose to leave the conventional exhibition spaces to have the
city and other public as “background”. The concept of ephemeral artistic intervention
and appropriation are understood, in this paper, as referring to a bunch of activities
that happen in “unconventional spaces” of exhibition and production. With this, we do
not intend to disregard the quality of initiatives that happen in the “traditional spaces”
of exhibition or production. However, these interventions present a fix dynamic, in a
concrete physical space and for a specific type of audience, often not adding new
dynamics to the city. Thus, it is important to explore the initiatives that for its
ephemerality and informality do not occupy the city in a fixed away, whether it is for
artistic interests or economic constraints.
Although have always existed art in the public space, the relation between the city,
the public and the artists changed in the late fifties of the 20th century, when the
artistic vanguards starts to look at the spaces and objects of quotidian as sources of
inspiration and as interesting places for new multidisciplinary artistic practices. These
ideals brought to the artistic exhibition and production to more informal spaces,
approaching the city and its dynamics of artistic practices (Lopes, 2012). That is what
we can see in the description of happening, one of the new artistic manifestations,
developed by Kaprow, the first artist to implement this kind of happenings in 1959.
Kaprow defined happening as “an assemblage of events performed or perceived in
more than one time and place. Its material environment may be constructed, taken
1
John Cage was one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He was a pioneer in the way that had
introduced sounds of everyday life in his compositions as well as in the production of musical instruments made
with objects of the quotidian.
2
Klaus Biesenbach is a German curator being actually director of MoMA PS1, in Queens , NY and chief Curator
at The Museum of Modern Art, in New York City.
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over directly from what is available or altered slightly; just as its activities may be
invented or commonplace. A happening unlike a stage play, may occur at
supermarket, driving along highway, under a pile of rags, and in a friend’s kitchen,
either at once or sequentially. If sequentially, time may extend to more than a year.
The happening is performed according to plan but without rehearsal, audience, or
repetition. Its art but seems closer to life”. (Kaprow, cited in Arnason, 1985, pp. 613).
Thus, the places of exhibition are not merely to exhibit art and have become places
of contemplation. Using ephemeral installations, the artists create modifications in the
built space, proposing a different experience to spectator by that time. These
changes cause alterations in the devices of work and exhibition: they stop thinking in
an object to be exposed in a place and it is the exhibition space that becomes the art
object itself.
Being pioneer in the development of these ideas “(…), the Minimal Art rejects the
metaphysics of the art and thus changed the role of the observer, which is no longer
required, an act of silence contemplation, to reflect on the unchanging significance of
the work of art hung or place in front, to pass to reflect on the process of their
perception, loading it of meaning” (Marzona, 2004, pp.11), the viewer is not more
just an observer, he has an active role in artistic experience. These ideals initially
emerged in institutional spaces, with the artist Robert Morris and the Minimal Art, but
quickly become produced in unconventional spaces, through groups as the Fluxus.
Several factors have led to these changes in art, however we could refer that one of
the aspects that more contributed to these movements was the background that the
artists have been acquiring in multidisciplinary artistic experiences that started to be
common in these vanguards. As it is referred in the work of Morris, through his
experience as dancer and artist performance, “(…) the perception [of a work of art]
was connected to the body and not limited to the sense of sight (…)” (Marzona, 2004,
pp.23). Through the happenings, performances, installations and Land Art
interventions, art get in quotidian life and is not more read only by the experts, that
frequently go to institutional spaces - as galleries or museums - , to become available
for a heterogenic audience without a special artistic sensibility (Traquino, 2010). Art
become to be much more exposed and susceptible to different opinions, depending
on the way it is observed by the different publics in the different spaces.
Such as what happens in the experiences that takes place in galleries or museums,
the “new” artistic interventions will be introduced in the spaces of the public sphere
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and try to create a connection between the people who experience them. Kinds of
different manifestations of what used to happen with the artwork present in the public
space until that moment - that limited itself to present a “finished object” without any
experience in which the viewer was an active part in the artistic construction. With
this, the public art was confined in an “elitist” form to the “beautify” of the cities and its
public spaces, as well as, in many cases, it is a vehicle to send politic or religious
messages or to invoke some old happenings or characters (such as what happens
with the name of several streets). If on one hand this factor can contribute to the
creation of a local identity, so important to any city, on the other hand can also
become a powerful ideological weapon, that has been used by numerous absolutist
states throughout the history - where the monuments, that represented the majority
of the public art until a few decades ago, assume an active political role over several
generations, as refer Miles: - “(…)the monument becoming, a device of social control
less brutish and costly than armed force” (Miles, 1997, pp.58).
With this, we conclude that the art that takes place in the spaces belonging to the
public sphere can be significant to several aspects, between them, the dynamics of
relationship that occur in the space. Attenuating the boundaries between work and
exhibition space, these initiatives can contribute for a constant change of experiences
where the city is the stage of everyday life. Another factor that seems to be important
is the ephemerality and informality of these types of actions, leading to a constant
(re) discover of the places where people walk daily; contributing to a strong dynamic
in the city, in its different layers of codification.
4. Ephemeral urban appropriations on a cultural district: some examples from
authors’ own experience
The ephemeral artistic intervention | appropriation introduces in the city new spaces
of public use, performing different public and private spaces, and becoming to relate
them with the public sphere, creating also “new” zones that return to have a utility in
the city and contribute to the mix of happenings. By its ephemerality, the majority of
these appropriations operate in the spaces without changing or damaging them. This
is one of the characteristics of this kind of interventions: it beholds potentiality in the
place that is appropriated, transforming its material identity to develop the work.
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This can be illustrated by 3 examples of urban interventions conducted by the
authors, in Lisbon’s main cultural quarter, which aimed to test and to be a source of
information to allow us to analyze and develop all these issues in practice.
In September of 2010, we tried to explore this kind of ephemeral intervention
promoting a “photographic exhibition” in an old shop that was closed for many years
in Bairro Alto, in Lisbon. The exhibition entitled Espaços Liminares34 (Liminal Spaces)
pretended to explore the limits between the public and private space of an old shop
reintroducing that space in the city dynamics and creating a new spot on the public
sphere during the period of the appropriation. The shop that was waiting for municipal
licensing for property redevelopment was expectant for some years. After we
contacted the property owner and explained what we would like to do - a project that
don’t degrade his property and add value to the space - he accepted to support the
artistic intervention. For ten days it was developed in the space, in parallel with a
photographic exhibition about public space appropriation, debates, concerts and
other artistic demonstrations supported by several artists that used that space as a
complement of the “traditional” public space of the quarter. The window of
considerable dimensions in the façade allowed the interior to be in constant contact
with the exterior contributing to create curiosity in the people who circulated on the
street and gradually decided to “invade” that “traditional private” place and participate
in the exhibition built with scaffolds and old doors that were stored in the interior of
the space. A set made with couches, some chairs and an old TV, simulating a
homemade scene, welcomed at first sight the ones who looked inside over the
window, deepening the sense of invasion of privacy (cf. images on Figure 1).
In December 2011, we developed one another project, in the framework of the
celebration of Semana do Bairro Alto (Bairro Alto Week). The exhibition |
intervention, called Bairros como nós5 (Neighborhoods like us), proposed to show to
the district users similar dynamics to those that happen in the quarter, without
explicating it - using photos of different cities as Barcelona, São Paulo, Istanbul,
Paris, Seattle, Florence, Copenhagen, São Francisco, Berlin and London that
3
Espaços Liminares was a photographic exhibition realized in ambit of the Creatcity Research Project in Bairro
Alto, Lisboa in September 2010, and that it was after also exposed in Gràcia, Barcelona, in November of the
same year. Its authors, Ana Roldão, Cristina Latoeira, Pedro Costa, Ricardo Lopes e Samuel Dias, exhibited
photos that were realized in the scope of a photographic study of three cultural quarters: Bairro Alto, Libon;
Grácia, Barcelona, and Vila Madalena, São Paulo.
4
5
http://espacosliminares.blogspot.pt/
http://bairroscomonos.blogspot.pt/
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represented similar dynamics between them. It was glued a set of large format
photos in 15 façades of the quarter, exploring the limits between public and private
space debated in this paper. The photos that composed the exhibition created a
route that surprised the users and the audiences that walk along the quarter6. The
exhibition hadn’t a fixed period of permanence, the ephemeral material where the
photos were printed, as well as the way that they were fixed in the walls, didn’t allow
it to remain for a long time. As a consequence, some photos disappeared after some
hours, while others kept for a long period. Not losing its ephemeral character, but
remaining, such as what happened with a image of a young guy hanging in a window
of Brick Lane, London, that keeps in the wall where was placed for more than one
year. However, who develops these kinds of interventions in the city understand them
as something that is ephemeral and can be vulnerable of intervention of other user,
who would be appropriated of the artwork. Whether it is because they will be behold
it, making part of the scenario that it is inserted, or intervene directly in the “object”. In
this kind of intervention, the documentary strand assumes an extremely importance.
Besides exploring artistic aspects and the limits between public and private spaces,
the exhibition tried also to create one critical sense in audience who had been tempt
to think about the quarter and its happenings from a different perspective. One photo
of Grácia (which can be consulted on the right wing of figure 2) is a good example –
to represent the protests of the residents against the excesses of the nightlife, an use
conflict common to all the quarters. This is another important aspect that artistic
interventions can have when developed in the public sphere: to create a critical
sense between the art and its message (the graffiti and the stencil have been
affirmed as one of the most active voices of population against the externalities in the
last years) that will be interpreted from a different perspective by the different people.
However, whereas that the artistic intervention will not have the same effect on all
observers, it should be made and thought for the space it will be inserted, looking for
answers for the intended function, whether it is for artistic proposes, or with academic
or functional reasons.
This open air exhibition was complemented by a parallel one, more conventional, on the same theme (by
the same authors, at the same time, in a more conventional exhibition center). However, no explicit
reference was made in each of these outdoor images to that exhibition, neither to the other photos of this
urban intervention, which were disposed in certain walls in order that people passing by would be finding
them randomly.
6
13
In December 2012, we set up one other artistic intervention in Bairro Alto, entitled
Beyond Visible7. The happening, that followed some of the concepts explored in
previously interventions (as the relations between private vs public spaces; public vs
artwork), intended to introduce in the quarter a “new living room” for one night in an
expectant space of Rua da Barroca, although its main concept was to explore the
idea of several layers of codifications that composed the creative milieus. Thus, along
the night, different people that walked on the street were invited to enter in a “dark
space” and built its own exhibition, without segregation of people or practices.
The intervention started with a projection of several photos overlapping in the
opposite façade of the intervened building. The projection drew a diffuse image of
Bairro Alto which suggested that something different was happening on that space.
Closer to the venue, people started to see one door, where it was possible to enter in
a “dark space”, and another one, where there were people going out on the rhythm of
photographic camera’s flashes.
The intervention suggested an inverted route of exhibition. It started with images of
people that had already been photographed projected on the wall of a “waiting room”,
where they received “UV lights” that were invited to use in the interior of the
happening. After people were invited to enter in a “dark space”, they started to
discover sentences (the sentences were collected previously through interviews
made with people in Bairro Alto in different periods of the day and represented the
opinions and image of those citizens about it) that were wrote with “transparent ink”
on the interior walls. The variety of sentences wrote, and the technique used, allowed
that each visitor discovered different things and interpreted them from different points
of view. Along the exhibition, the visitors were surprised by other artistic
interventions, as a performing space where two actors8 talked with the visitors (one at
a time) about Bairro Alto or the “background noise”9 constructed with sounds
collected in the quarter. At the end, the visitors were surprised by four
photographers10 that had prepared a replica of a professional studio to photograph
them and, in this way, they become to make part of the artistic intervention - not just
as spectator and a participative element, but also as an object exhibited.
http://beyondvisibleba2012.blogspot.pt/
Performers: Nuno Antunes and Beatriz Henriques
9 Musicians: JPShelaq / Geraldes / João
10 Photographic intervention: Thiago Feitosa / Carolina Mota / Alexandre Abreu / Mariana Cortes
7
8
14
With this ephemeral artistic intervention, we tested some of the concepts that we
have been studying through participant observation and that have allowed us to
analyze these informal initiatives from a nearest perspective, such as what we have
used with the photographic surveys conducted in several creative quarters.
Naturally, that kind of informal initiatives can’t be set up with the same multitude in
the different areas of the city, neither in different cities. Diverse places require
different creative approaches, and more than that, diverse places enable and
enhance differently the conditions for artistic appropriation of their public sphere.
Morphological conditions are naturally diverse; symbolic references and their
relations with identity mechanism are certainly different; agents motivations,
expectancies and strategies are undoubtedly multiple and diverse; and after all,
regulation mechanisms and governance mechanisms are dissimilar, and the way
informality can be explored will be particular and site specific.
In that sense, next section will present briefly an overview of the 5 cultural quarters
we proposed to confront in this paper. A comparative perspective of their public
sphere, captured through a photographic approach to each of them, enables us to
question and to bring to discussion the characteristics of each of these districts,
concerning their morphology, creative dynamics and informality, trying to understand
the main features that can contribute to the development and vitality urban artistic
intervention in each these cultural quarters
15
Figure 1: “Espaços liminares” intervention
Figure 2: “Bairros como nós ” intervention
Figure 3: “Beyond Visible” intervention
16
5. A comparative photographic approach to five creative districts: urban
morphology, creative dynamics and informality
As explained before, our main purpose is to discuss the relation between urban
design, public space appropriation and the informal dynamics verified on the creative
milieus from an international comparative perspective. Five cultural quarters around
the world are used to illustrate our discussion in this paper, and will be briefly
presented in this section. They represent very diverse situations concerning their
historical, cultural and economic backgrounds, and embody quite distinct spatial and
morphological conditions. However, we acknowledge all this variety in the support of
creative clusters and in the vitality and sustainability of these “creative milieus”.
Our methodological approach to these areas in this work was not the most
conventional. In effect, at different degrees, all these areas have been previously
object of in-depth analysis in broad research projects (Costa et al, 2010, Costa and
Lopes, 2012; Costa, 2008, 2012, 2013a; Lopes, 2012). Our option was to use a
combination of more traditional methods (particularly bibliographic survey on all the
cases, and use of interviews and other information for the cases where available),
with a more unconventional ethnographic-based approach to each quarter,
essentially based on image recollection and participant observation. This approach,
centred essentially on the observation of urban morphology, everyday life and
symbolic public space appropriations, allowed us to study these territories from a
nearest perspective, which although more contaminated by subjectivity, seemed
essential for us to compare these five cases, trying to reach their effective diversity,
naturally embedded in cultural, socio-economic, political and material specificities. If
we are studying informal interventions we need to go down to the ground to “see”, to
“feel” and to “smell” what is happening, reaching dimensions which are many times
discarded by researchers or city planners who work at their ateliers without that
specific knowledge of the field. Accepting the fragilities and limitations of this kind of
approach, yet we purpose to test with this work this kind of methodological tools in
order to get empirical information which allow us to enrich the discussion on the
informality mechanisms and their impact in the creative dynamics of these areas.
We intended to shed a light on aspects such as urban morphology and everyday life
in each neighbourhood, and to understand their relation with the specific symbolic
system, thinking each case in the framework of its’ cultural, socio-economic and
17
governance particularities, and understanding how informal and formal mechanisms
contribute for the development and vitality of the creative dynamics of those areas, in
generic terms, and seizing their potential for artistic interventions based on the
appropriation of public sphere.
Bairro Alto / Cais do Sodré (Lisboa)
Bairro Alto was the first urban core built outside the city walls of Lisbon (Portugal),
dating from the early 16th century, located near to one of the “city doors” at the date.
Its design adapts to the topography, adopting an orthogonal grid. The quarter is
characterized by its narrow streets composed majority by buildings of Pombalino
period, and despite the numerous renovations and additions, keeps essentially its
historical and picturesque image. The sidewalks are narrow or inexistent. The traffic
is closed inside part of the quarter (in recent decades), giving access exclusively to
residents and loadings. So, main car traffic is carried by the peripherals limits of the
quarter, being possible to cross it by Rua da Rosa that divides the quarter into two
parts with different characteristics, being the Western zone mostly residential, and
the Eastern zone characterized by functional diversity, where the majority of functions
with social character occur. Public space represents a small area of the quarter,
mostly in the streets that cross it, and its peripheral limits (with rare green spaces or
urban furniture for permanence). Thus, the streets assume the function of “living
room of the quarter” to the regulars who wander and chat there during daytime and
for those who flock at the quarter at night, standing or sitting along the streets.
Considered marginal, insalubrious, and poor in habitability conditions in the mid-20th
century, it led to projects for demolition of the quarter. However this did not occurred,
which allowed the deployment in this area of the city of a series of activities that took
advantage of the fact that it was a central and relatively low-priced economic zone to
develop, such as the case of the printing cluster. Is following this logic that the
contemporary creative industries begin to develop in the territory, articulating the axis
Chiado – Bairro Alto, and exploring the long-term inter relation and complementarity
between the institutional-daily pattern of Chiado (the side “inside” the ancient walls
and institutional cultural pole of the city) and the alternative-marginal-nightlife image
of the Bairro Alto area (Costa, 2007, 2009). This fruitful relation, exploring the
transgressive tradition in terms of sociability and conviviality in Bairro Alto, feed the
18
area’s development as the main cultural area of Lisbon. The artistic universities
placed in Bairro Alto as in Chiado increased the critical masses of who lived and
attended the activities in this district, and it was in this general context that this part of
the city affirmed itself over the years as the cultural and creative place for most
cultural activities in the metropolitan area, although in recent years, this centrality has
shifted progressively for consumption-oriented and social and conviviality-based
activities, also essential for the structuring of the creative activities cluster, though not
centered on cultural creation and production (Costa, 2012). Facing gentrification risks
and huge use conflicts the area’s sustainability is challenged by several sides (Costa
et Lopes, 2012; Costa, 2013), but informality, openness and tolerance to diversity
and liminality are key-elements in a place which still is associated with a marginal,
bohemia and alternative way of life, despite its growing massification and symbolic
mainstreaming.
Cais do Sodré area, contiguous to Bairro Alto, has been noticed in most recent years
for beginning to share similar dynamics, by the expansion of some of Bairro Alto’s
creative and conviviality activity southwards. It was an area that until few years ago
didn’t show the same agglomeration of activities in the creative sector. However,
cheap land price, a lot of unoccupied spaces, and strong centrality, quickly attracted
creative activities to this area, especially encompassing the symbolic mainstreaming
of Bairro Alto area (performing arts, architecture ateliers, art galleries, etc.). As a
node of conviviality, Cais do Sodré has also affirmed, or reaffirmed, fast. Being a
traditional seaport area, Cais do Sodré has always received essentially “marginal”labeled users. With less schedule restrictions and better traffic access than Bairro
Alto, the area uplifted its image rapidly in last years. Its aura of conviviality and
bohemia, where transgressing the rules used to be a constant (until recently it hosted
the prostitution and marginality that had previously let Bairro Alto area) was
incorporated and re-branded in new more-“mainstream” projects. Old prostitution
hotels or strip houses have been transformed in new trendy bars to the new users.
This symbolical factor attracts tourists and new users to the area, whose streets are
now overcrowded at night. More “alternative” cultural activities cohabited side by side
with the “traditional activities” and now they are being quickly gentrified, such as
happened before in Bairro Alto.
An important role was developed here by local commerce association and city
council, which joined forces to reaffirm Cais do Sodré as an important nightlife spot,
19
and decided to close to traffic Rua Nova do Carvalho. This decision was extremely
important and has been contributing for an easier appropriation of the street by the
new users. In addition to traffic closing, several artistic interventions were organized.
The most impacting (“rua-cor-de-rosa”) was no more than painting all the new
pedestrianized street of pink. The controversy that this idea generated attracted a lot
of people to the area, not only traditional users but also new ones. Other artistic
interventions have been explored in Cais do Sodré, such as performances in
apartments or the installation of the well-known Portuguese plastic artist Joana
Vasconcelos in a vacant building of the quarter (later transformed on a luxury hotel).
Contrary to Bairro Alto, here we can find the presence of a larger area of public
space due to the new areas that were provided by successive embankments.
Nevertheless, the streets keep assuming an importance as places where people stay
for a longer period. And it is in the streets, like in Bairro Alto, that public sphere is
more the focus of artistic intervention. On the walls, assuming the public space as
performing set, or working with the private space but opening it to the street and
prolonging the street into it, as we can see in most of images of Figure 4, the public
sphere is polarized by streets. In Bairrro Alto and Cais do Sodré they are the space
of conviviality, polarizing the sociability of nightlife (and the essential knowledge
change and reputation building mechanisms essential for the functioning of cultural
worlds), the main space of informality (differently from other case studies), and the
locus where most use conflicts are felt (essentially derived of externalities, like noise,
traffic, parking congestion, cleaning systems jamming, etc.). The balances and
tensions between the multiple coexistent layers of practices and perceptions that
cross these public sphere spots are unequivocally a key-factor that can (and have
been) explored by artists within their creative appropriation of these spaces.
20
Figure 4: Bairro Alto / Cais do Sodré
21
Figure 5: Gràcia
22
Gràcia (Barcelona)
Gràcia was also result of an urban development outside the city of Barcelona (Spain).
Distanced approximately 2 km of the walled city it developed as an autonomous
“pueblo”, which structural characteristics still remain until today, being that also
reflected in a strong sense of local identity in its population. It was incorporated in the
city of Barcelona after Cerdà plans, in the XIX century. The narrow streets are usual
framed by 4-5 floors buildings. The orthogonal grid is interrupted several times by
squares, where people meet, which are the main public spaces of the quarter,
equipped with plenty of urban furniture and shaded from the sun by trees. These are
the scenario for public convergence of people with a high degree of heterogeneity.
Gràcia still characterizes for being an autonomous “small city” within Barcelona. It is
perfectly possible to live, to work and to access to cultural events without leaving the
quarter. This mix of “needed activities”, but also the ones of “social” and “optional”
nature (cf Balula, 2010, pp. 50) confers to the quarter vitality and dynamism
throughout the day, being one of the cases which presents a better balance between
the three groups. Circulation in the quarter is correctly hierarchized and some streets
are closed to traffic, while others just allow circulation of specific vehicles and
bicycles. The parking congestion issue is not as accurate as in other cases (e.g. in
Bairro Alto and Vila Madalena users can take hours to park their vehicles). Sidewalks
are regular and it is usual to find the sidewalk at the road’s plan to solve the problem
of the narrow streets; with this solution and the traffic controlled most of the streets
are large sidewalks most of the time. The quarter doesn’t have significant
topographical variations in spite of presenting a slight pending throughout all territory.
In Gràcia the creative activities are further integrated with local dynamics, being one
of the case studies which express a better relation between all the activities. Although
it is a neighbourhood where crowds flow, mixing the more traditional and the
alternative, these seem to live well among the quarter dynamics. Gràcia shows a
huge vitality along the day, joining traditional middle class residents, intellectuals,
immigrants, Erasmus students and other sorts of gentrifiers, in what can be
considered a quite balanced quarter, where local authorities and associative
movements have a large preponderance in its governance mechanisms. In spite of
all this, creative dynamics in recent years have been turning to a more
23
institutionalized and less informal pattern losing in some circumstances some
spontaneity and quality, into a more entertainment based pattern.
Being essentially a vital residential area, mixing a diversity of populations and
creative segments, use conflicts and problems in public space appropriation naturally
occur, although less extensively than in Bairro Alto’s case. Gentrification is also a
challenge, although more controlled here, and the main use conflicts are essential
related with externalities, mostly conviviality related, particularly concerning nightlife.
Despite a strong public control over public space (e.g., campaign anti-graffiti on
Barcelona’s walls), informality often wins its space, as can be seen by the
multiplication of information (advertisement and other), in the non-regulated public
sphere (as the doors jambs, as can be seen on figure 5). Despite some signals of
less informality, appropriation of public spaces is undoubtedly very important also in
this district, and artistic creation finds its space (like in many other Barcelona’s areas)
to step out to public sphere.
Vila Madalena (São Paulo)
Vila Madalena, São Paulo, Brazil, starts as a small group of houses in the outskirts of
São Paulo. Only in early 20th century, with the construction of the railway line that
would connect this small cluster of blue-collar workers’ houses to city center, and
then definitively in the 70’s, with the location of the Arts University of São Paulo into a
near neighborhood, this area starts to assume the setting that we can find today. Like
São Paulo itself, it is characterized for being in constant mutation. From the
beginning it was a quarter composed mostly by single-family housing. Today, it is in
quite advanced state of gentrification and many of the single-family building that
composed (and symbolized) the quarter has been replaced by buildings with more
than ten floors. These urban changes are disfiguring, in physical terms, the “old”
artistic quarter. But this one was itself fruit of the post 70’s gentrification of the
precedent blue-collar workers neighborhood, although then the change was not too
much reflected in the buildings characteristics. Fast urban change, associated to
economic and demographic expansion, progressively gets new areas of the city. The
municipal master plan allows the replacement of the old buildings by others with
completely different characteristics (contrary to what happens in Portuguese or
24
Spanish cases, where regulations don´t allow great modifications in the
characteristics of existing edification). These kinds of alterations in edification
typologies of Vila Madalena are changing the intrinsic characteristics of the district,
due to the changes in uses and in population that these restructurings generate. Old
buildings are mostly replaced by private condominiums that not only involve lesser
levels of public space appropriation but also do not guarantee the same mix of
activities that was present in the old structure of the quarter. That have being
conducting to a certain loss of vitality, contrary to what seems to happen in other
districts, where the strategy has been keeping mixed uses in the buildings and
multifunctional areas, regardless of the use conflicts that this can generate.
In Vila Madalena, pedestrians’ circulation seems to be one of the most problematic
aspects. The quarter is implanted in topography of pronounced slopes; sidewalks
configuration, as in most of this city, is built by each landowner, as they want, which
reduces mobility. In spite of this, sidewalks are large, and they are appropriated by
costumers who come to the zone and other users. Formal and informal appropriation
of these spaces is quite usual. Differently to what happens in other cases, the
hierarchy of streets is less marked; cars can circulate in all of them, contrary to what
happens in most of the other cases, where access is easier or facilitated by foot or by
public transport. After all, the car is really an important part of living (or using) this
quarter, and its implications (mostly, congestion and traffic issues), are important
downsides to the capacity to live and go to this quarter.
Vila Madalena is in an advanced state of gentrification and will probably disappear as
a “creative quarter” in some years, due to the challenges of gentrification and urban
transformation. However, contrary to most of the European cases, like in many other
cities with dimension and soft planning regulations (e.g. many American cities) this
does not mean that the creative dynamics verified here could not change to other
parts of the city, starting a new process of appropriation and “gentrification”.
For now, living with a fast gentrification process, and dealing in quotidian with many
externalities-related conflicts, the area does not cease to be a pole for artistic
appropriation of public spaces in this city, widely recognized for its graffiti murals, or
for the creative spots (art galleries, ateliers, small performing venues) that opens
themselves to the ample streets or to the inside lobby’s and patios that prolong the
public sphere inside its blocks.
25
Figure 6: Vila Madalena
26
Brick Lane (London)
Brick Lane area, in London, England, is an old industrial quarter, now associated
essentially to immigrants from Bangladesh and new gentrifiers. In recent years it has
affirmed itself as one of the most creative places of the city, where generations,
styles and habits coexist side by side. The East End zone at London is for many
years characterized by migratory fluxes of people of a large heterogeneity such as
Irish, Jews or Bengalis. The zone of Brick Lane, within this area, is an obviously
reflex of this knowledge sedimentation which marks this multiethnic part of London.
The fluxes of immigration are integrant part of this city’s history, contributing to its
dynamic and vitality: “Waves of immigrants have passed through, (…). They brought
with them trades, skills crafts and talents that have helped underpin London’s
position as a world city” (Landry, 2000, pp. 111). Although original immigration in
Brick Lane was essentially connected to the industry located on the area, nowadays
this place affirms, with Shoredich and Hoxton (North limits of East End), as one of the
most “creative” of London area, being stage of fluxes of immigrants and other people
who come looking for an alternative and informal way of life. From early 90’s it started
attracting numerous “creative people”, from around the world, offering a place where
one could easily network with local artists, exchange knowledge, and be inserted in a
milieu which could potentiate the artistic life, providing evolution opportunities and
mediation mechanisms (like happens in Kreuzberg case, also at worldwide level, at
least for some specific art worlds).
However these more “informal, marginal and alternative” milieus that “help” the
development of this kind of dynamics and attracted these people aren’t new in this
part of the city. East End was along the history of London the place for the activities
which were not welcome inside the city walls (like in Bairro Alto case), being one of
the poorest places in London until nineteen century. So industry, lower classes and
marginal life, often connected to criminality and bohemia, dominated this part of the
city until the 90’s, when creative clusters began to take the place of the abandoned
industries. This area have been vastly transformed during last decades, not due to an
intentional and carefully planning strategy, but essentially due to its’ own dynamics,
combining specific governance, socioeconomic and cultural factors, all this
regardless a set of key programs that enhanced some dynamics around projects
27
such as Rich Mix, the Stipafields Market, the Truman Brewery or Whitechapel
Gallery/Library’s reformulation.
The informality found in this territory allows a series of dynamics that are impossible
to find in other parts of the city, where people are not so tolerant and informality is
less extended. Brick Lane mobilizes a symbolic capital which attracts artist and
creators from around the world to come, intervene and live in this area. At the same
time, visitors and consumers are also naturally attracted. This is one of the case
studies (parallel with Kreuzberg SO36) where more appropriation by artistic
ephemeral activities in the public sphere is verified, being a tolerant zone, where we
can be easily surprised by new happenings, differently from other parts of London
that don’t have this freedom of action. Street art is visible along the streets; works
with quality and reputation contribute to fill with colors the traditional brick walls which
were the image of the quarter. Many exhibitions take place on the streets, changing
the image of the building space and contributing for a constant (re)discover of public
space, that appears in this part of London less segmented, segregated and
dominated by power relations. Concerts on the streets, cine sessions on roofs of
cultural clubs, ethnic food markets, clothes markets and “alternative” products are
some of dynamics which contribute for the vitality of the place which seems to be the
one less gentrified from our universe of case studies (this quarter maintains largely its
original population contrary to what happens in Shoreditch and Hoxton, for instance).
In terms of morphology the area is plan and composed by buildings with different
heights, drawing a jagged skyline (like in Gràcia). Likewise most of the other case
studies, use conflicts are very significant, resulting from the diversity of publics,
lifestyles and expectations of who live and come to this place. This level of conflict
has been probably contributing to keep this dynamics less institutionalized, and the
fact that there are other creative quarters in London certainly also has contributed to
retard the gentrification process.
28
Figure 7: Brick Lane
29
Figure 8: Kreuzberg SO36
30
Kreuzberg SO36 (Berlin)
Kreuzberg SO36, located in the West part of Berlin, Germany, near the river Spree, is
one of Berlin's cultural centers, in the middle of the now reunified city, evolving from
its recent history as one of the poorest quarters in Berlin (in the late 1970s and 80’s,
during which it was an isolated section of West Berlin), mostly dwelled by
subcultures, to one of the most vibrant centers in many art worlds in the European
context. Kreuzberg consists of two distinctive parts (SO36 and SW61, referring to the
old postal codes for the two areas in West Berlin). Kreuzberg SO 36, home of many
immigrants (and second-generation immigrants, most notoriously from Turkish
ancestry) and main contemporary nest for creative dynamics, is marked by diversity,
multiculturalism and informality, attracting creative people from around the world and
achieving a unique symbolic status. At the same time, the district is also
characterized by high levels of unemployment and some of the lowest average
incomes in Berlin.
Along history, this quarter (as Berlin itself) has staged many morphologic, political,
cultural and social alterations, which have been contributed with its ups and downs to
the construction of the image of the city. This neighborhood started developing in late
XIX century, resulting from the fast industrial expansion after the foundation of
German Empire in 1871, which continued until the end of the First World War. Based
on expansive housing development, related to industrial growth, quickly it raised from
an almost rural territory to the area with highest population density in Berlin. But it
was the end of Second World War that changed definitely its image, as large parts of
the city were in ruin and Kreuzberg SO36 was not an exception (being one of the
industrial areas particularly focused by bombing). It was in this historical context,
along with the post-war city division, that the traditional dwellers left the poor zone of
Kreuzberg SO36 and moved to newer parts of the city. This social change was
essential to start the development of “alternative” dynamics in the quarter. The
numerous abandoned spaces, such as residences, old workplaces, shops and
industrial zones, were occupied by new dwellers of lower classes that came to live in
the quarter. The huge heterogeneity of experiences brought by new inhabitants was
essential for the development of the creative dynamics. “The Kreuzberg mix [Rada,
1997] refers not only to an ethnic and social mixture but also to a population with a
partly alternative attitude and rebellious character, a strong subcultural influence and
31
simultaneity of living, small-scale crafts and shops in the same buildings” (Bader,
Bialluch, 2009, pp. 94).
In spite of its central location in the city, it was isolated during the “Berlin Wall” period,
which closed the quarter near to River Spree, not allowing contacts with the East of
the city. Even within the West-side of Berlin, the area lost its centrality, enclosed by
the Berlin Wall on three sides, and was quite unattractive for real estate investments.
Particularly from late 1960s, increasing numbers of immigrants, students and artists,
attracted by cheaper land, began moving to Kreuzberg, which became notable for its
alternative lifestyle and its squatters. Berlin’s punk rock scene or LGBT life, for
instance, had its epicenter here. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the quarter
earned a new centrality, founding itself on the heart of the city again, and the streets
that used to finish in blind alleys outstanding the wall earn life again. It is in this
period that the place affirmed as the “creative quarter” in international circuits,
according Florida (2002). The initially cheap rents and high grade of 19th century
housing made some parts of the borough more attractive as a residential area for a
much wider (and richer) variety of people. Today, Kreuzberg has one of the youngest
populations of all European city boroughs.
In terms of morphology the quarter implants in a plan territory and is composed by
large sidewalks and streets. Most heights of buildings don’t exceed the large of the
streets what contribute for a good relation between edification and people. The
mixed-uses of buildings contribute to the diversity of activities along the streets.
Public sphere, more than strict public space, reveals its’ real importance here,
because most of the year the climatological conditions are not very encouraging on
the streets, the principal stage of the interaction in other case studies. Other formal or
informal convivial places emerge, in the public sphere, many of them of a transitional
or ephemeral nature.
Kreuzberg SO36 clearly exemplifies as ephemeral artistic interventions and creative
appropriations can generate and enhance creative dynamics in a zone of a city,
contributing to the redevelopment of “expectant spaces” believing this kind of
dynamics helps reinventing the cities. Berlin is a laboratory for this kind of
experiences, sometimes even promoted by official planning policies. Empty spaces,
residential buildings, bunkers, old industrial spaces have been reconverted through
the change of uses of these out-of-function spaces and their reintroduction in the
everyday life of the quarter, creating new cultural places, leisure spots or residences.
32
“Like in a surrealism collage, elements of opposite world meet” (Oswalt, 2010, pp. 2),
appearing and disappearing with a large velocity, contributing to reconvert
innumerous spaces of the quarter. Actually, the huge associative dynamic of its
tolerant and heterogeneous population, enhances a quite decentralized cultural offer,
which along its multicultural nature, helps to maintain the gentrification of the quarter
under control.
6. Concluding note
This paper’s objective was to explore artistic intervention in public sphere, relating it
to urban design, public space appropriation and the informal dynamics verified on
creative milieus, from an international comparative perspective. Based on an
empirical approach to urban morphology, everyday life and symbolic public space
appropriation on five different creative districts, it were identified some common
features which seem to have an important role to embed and to support artistic
vitality and informal public space appropriation in these creative milieus.
Drawing on a conceptual framework which acknowledges conflict and informal
dynamics as drivers for artistic vitality, we discussed the evolution of artistic
intervention in the public sphere and some particular experiences of ephemeral urban
appropriations on cultural districts. An empirical work supported on literature review,
visual recollection and participative observation, allowed us to discuss, for each of
our case studies, their situation regarding urban morphology, creative dynamics and
informality, in order to understand their attractiveness and potential for public sphere
centered artistic interventions.
Ephemeral artistic interventions, in contemporary cultural and social panorama, are
undoubtedly important, in a moment that is not possible to think in large projects such
as happened in the past. Micro-scale projects developed often on an informal and
ephemeral way can be fundamental contributions to the dynamics of each territorial
system. Urban interventions and artistic appropriations like these, developed often by
multidisciplinary groups, create "ephemeral architectures" that interact (physically
and at the symbolical level) with more “permanent architectures”, and that can
appropriate the city and test innovative solutions, while helping to boost these
territories, promoting vitality and well-being, without expending large costs.
33
Naturally these actions are involved in complex mechanisms, considering their role
as creators of symbolic attributes (for the artists, for their interventions, for the
places), and the intense network of motivations, interests and use conflicts that are
inherent to them. Moreover, many times they can be used and explored (but also
instrumentalized) in urban development processes, in an era where bureaucratic
processes and personal, corporate or public authorities’ interests have different
rhythms and ways of working. The Berlin case, with the active public policy towards
the use of temporary “intermediate uses”, is one example of how this public sphere
can be explored by planning authorities, with private benefits for (at least some of)
the stakeholders involved (land owners, artists, users, public authorities), at least
temporarily (although at the long term some will gain more than other, as always).
Naturally these dynamics are very important to cities and are often used (or at least
rhetorically appropriated) in name of its development. However it is of note that such
actions - which are by nature "informal" and "alternative" - should work in this way
because it is part of their nature to develop in this way and they would have much
less interest if they lose the spontaneity and detract from their identity, that is the way
how they appropriate of spaces that are not the most common. Thus, the most
important thing is to not want to replicate things, but simply let them happen in the
natural dynamics of cities. It is fundamental to understand the roots of these
dynamics and, more than support or cherish them, simply to leave them space to
flourish and to develop. Creativity is not at all a good friend of excesses on
institutionalization and on planning, and as our case studies demonstrate, informality,
and specific logics of governance, related to the openness and the tolerance towards
the artistic appropriation of the public sphere are crucial factors in its development.
This analysis was expected to provide a contribution towards the development of a
new planning agenda for dealing with urban creative dynamics and cultural quarters.
In effect, the attendance of these ideas when dealing or intervening with territoriallybased creative dynamics, seem to be fundamental. And this does not mean that each
one of them can be fabricated for each intervention by urban planners, private
investors or public authorities, but
instead that each territorial system must been
understood in all its specificities and in all its diverse potential. Then, these key
factors should be valorized and worked with the local actors, seizing specific
governance mechanisms, articulating stakeholders’ interests, managing their internal
use conflicts, and understanding the vital importance of the symbolic system and
34
place representation, for the diverse users of the quarter and the multiple art worlds.
Places open to informality, giving freedom for less formal action and providing space
for liminality, avoiding the excesses of institutionalization, seem to be the key for a
successful planning activity, as have been demonstrated in these case studies. As an
example, many of the small artistic interventions on urban space or initiatives based
on appropriation of local public spheres verified promote a vitality and an authentic
connection to place and local dynamics which are much more consequent in terms of
effectiveness and long term sustainability for local development than more
“conventional” or “institutional” “creativity rhetoric”-led initiatives, branding creative
quarters, supporting the attraction of creative people or promoting emblematic
facilities or flagship events. And after all, they are much more affordable for planning
authorities as well.
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